June 18, 2024
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted against recommending clemency for death row inmate Richard Rojem Jr.
Rojem was convicted in 1984 for kidnapping, raping and murdering 7-year-old Layla Dawn Cummings, his former stepdaughter. Court records say Cummings was abducted from an apartment while her mother was working, and the girl’s body was later found in a field on the side of a county road in Burns Flat.
Rojem has maintained his innocence and has won two challenges to his sentence. After several re-sentencing trials, juries kept recommending the death penalty, which was upheld by the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Rojem is scheduled to be put to death on June 27 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
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